Clinging on to hope. Hoping for some great joy in the future. Even as I write this I can see that something in my mind that says once I am done with writing this post I will get closer to where I want to be. May be even as you are reading this you are unconsciously hurrying to read the next line as you read this one.

What are we waiting for? what are we hoping for? Hope binds us to the future. Hope that something else, something more will give me some great joy. Hopelessness is freedom. Hopelessness is Peace. Hopelessness is joy.

This is one of my Favourite photo of Guruji. Really inspires me to go within.

Question: Guruji whenever I see you I start running after you. Is this devotion or lack of self respect?

Guruji: In the beginning you run, its ok. But then you should learn to stop and look within. Dive deep within yourself then I will run after you and the whole world will run after you.

We can have dasrhan(vision) of either the Guru or/and the Guru tatva( element) which is all pervading. Practically it is impossible for Guruji to be with all of us all the time but the experience of Guru Tatva can happen anytime anywhere.

We have to keep our Focus on the Guru Tatva. The more we empty our minds of all the trash, offering everything as it comes at the feet of the master the more we experience the non changing, eternal, all pervading aspect of our self. Sooo ham!

At the very sight of pleasure the mind gets excited and the restlessness begins. The first step is, as soon as the tendency arises, recognizing it. Its like saying," Caught you dear, now lets consciously decide in which direction to move; inside or outside".

Here are some tips to move within. Basically its a compilation of all that Guruji has spoken at different times and whatever I have read in Yoga Vasistha and of course whatever experiences I have had through my own self effort.

1. Wondering at the aspirations of the mind and seeing it as a joke. Playing with it.

2. Remembering the end. Remembering the pain. Remembering the fall. How much misery has caused every time I have followed my feelings and my cravings. What have I got in return? How long do I intend to continue moving in circles on a not so merry go round.

3. Following an Example. Remembering the Master. HIS love, compassion, grace. Aiming for the highest. Ultimately just offering the desires to the Master.

4. Knowing that the discomfort created (by a feeling that, “ am I missing something?”) during the state of withdrawing the mind is much less than the pain created by unconscious indulgence.

5. If the wave seems to be so big and strong just imagine how much more bigger the ocean would be? If the manifestation is so intense how much more intense the source would be? Inspiring the mind to come back. Creating a temptation to go within and at the same time trivializing its pleasure-seeking tendency.

All this is lot of fun. I am really enjoying the challenge and grateful to see how the unseen energy guides me on every step.

The mind is ruthless and unbelievably consistent. The moment you experience freedom and joy it will bring about a new thought, concern or an issue and thats it! once again we find ourselves struggling to be free. That is why I have made my intention, my goal very clear. It can be just put in three words ," KILL the MIND".

Encouraging the outward flow of the mind strengthens it. The illusion of joy being outside becomes more concrete and as a result misery in life multiplies. Experience of joy is only momentary and we suffer from total instability.

Having the readiness and the skill to keep withdrawing the mind from the object of the senses back to the source is something that has to be learnt. Even if the external trigger is incredibly beautiful and tempting, Withdrawing the mind and fixing the attention inside again and again and again is of absolute importance. If you fail a million times make the attempt once more. Yoga Vasistha says "Every zealous effort is crowned with fruition".

One pointed focus on fixing my attention on the seven energy centers is considered to be the most sure way of becoming free. Too much analysis of external causes is a complete waste of time. Observing the effect within is the way to freedom.

Every time the mind craves for a pleasant experience. Smile at it, gently pull it back, using whatever skill to re install it in your heart. Burn the tendencies of the mind in the fire of awareness.

There are some tips about " how to gently withdraw the mind" which I will write about in the next post next Tuesday.

I had an amazing time playing the Pirate role in the play "Anand and Benaifer" written by Suparna form singapore, directed by Priya Mani, siddhika and of course BAWA. Super hilarious love story with Dakus, Pirates etc I found myself doing stuff which i had never imagined I would ever do in my life.

Rolling upside down on the stage in front of 2000 odd people! Really enjoyed working for this one.

The music was composed by Prasanna fro, Singapore and was perfectly executed by Harshal, Ankit, Sarang, Anagha, Divya, sumaanshi and kamakshi..

The dances were too good and they got a chance to perform in front of Guruji! after satsang. CHirag being the choreographer it ought to be fantastic.

The actors were brilliant and the direction and the humour also was superb.

All in all summer magic was really magical with Guruji staying back till the end. Next time something like that..Just dont miss.

My dear, If you are an Indian national, I invite you to fill up the nation-wide Survey on Combating Corruption which will eventually be presented to the policy makers of our country. It may take you about 20 minutes to complete and it would be good learning and great awareness as well. Its ideal to send this to a few of your friends or colleagues or get it filled up by your mom and/or dad and if possible, your maid. This is 'cos we need representative samples from various sections of society. The survey is available online till 15th June midnight, but may I request you to fill it up before it becomes Urgent and Important, which is basically NOW :-) ! Kudos for being proactive and being a part of the solution to the problems of our people!

For the Survey on Combating Corruption, please click on the following link...

By now all of you must have heard about the incident that took place in the ashram on Sunday night. That same night everything in the ashram was perfectly normal. As of now I had heard quite a few stories about the extent of the madness that the Indian media channels have subjected themselves to, just for the sake of creating news and edging out each other for the No 1 spot. But for the first time I was a witness to a stray incident and could see the way media and some of the so called responsible Govt leaders reacted to it.

Truth and objectivity does not really matter. What sells is spice. Media will do what sells.

One of the channels reported," There is high level of security around Guruji's Kutir" when there was nobody other than may be a few stray dogs around. " Mr Vinay (the guy who was hit by the bullet) is unconscious in the hospital." this was the time when he was roaming around freely in the ashram! " It is suspected that Mallikarjun could have been the person who shot" its surprising that the channel did not know that Vinay's full name is Vinay Mallikarjun!!

"The bullet was fired after Guruji left" God knows how they reached this conclusion completely disregarding what the people who were inside the car including Guruji had to say.

Mr P chidambaram says," It may be a conflict between disciples"...now that is the Art of irresponsibility! No proof, no evidence but guys you know what, I have to say something and pass the buck right back. The media catches on to it like a bone thrown to a hungry dog to chew on for the next few hours.

India tv , India news and Aaj tak are the most hilarious, dramatazing every bit of it and inspite of all the chaos created by media it was great to see the calmness and composure shown not only by Guruji but also by all the devotees present in the ashram.

More than who shot the bullet the real mystery is why is Mr Chidambaram and the police under playing this event by repeatedly saying Guruji was not the target. What are they scared of?

One of the amazing phenomena to experience is that all this chaos has not in the least affected the celebrative atmosphere in the ashram in the midst of Guruji's beautiful talks every evening on the Ashtavakra Gita!

When you are feeling good there is no problem. The problem comes when we are feeling low. The more you feel low the more you want to feel high and the more you want to feel high the more the low feeling persist. This is the only problem in life.

Guruji asks a very important question here. The question is quite revolutionary. HE questions," have you ever loved your low feelings?" This exploded like a bomb in me when I read it for the first time. He says,"the day you accept your low feelings you will become the richest person on this planet. When you feel low agree to go low!!!"

This knowledge is quite dangerous. Because if wrongly applied it may lead to a state of self pity or a state in which the mind is seeking attention and sympathy. But what Guruji is talking is something completely different. He is talking about living in total agreement and acceptance of the present moment.

Only with a proper understanding of this knowledge one can ever experience the witness consciousness and realise that I am not the thoughts or my feelings. I am not the mind. Even a momentary glimpse of this truth brings enormous freedom and joy.

I was amazed to notice, almost unconsciously how consistently I keep avoiding and denying unpleasant sensations. From moment to moment there is a tendency to escape and ignore.

Its been a very good sadhana, since the last few days I have been training myself to stare straight into the face of even the slightest unpleasantness.. Stand up, face it and keep watching! however insignificant it appears to be.

Learning to be with what is.

JGDRashmin

PS: If you found this post interesting you will definitely like " dealing with feelings" from the book God Loves Fun.

Its amazing to see the universality of the knowledge of the self. In the last satsang I attended with Swami Suryapada, He said that a Rishi was known as Mantra drishtas which means, they used to acquire the knowledge about any one aspect of the universe as a vision during meditations and the knowledge used to manifest in the form of a mantra.

So the entire Sanatana( eternal) Dharma (that which upholds) is basically a compilation of all the knowledge acquired by thousands of Rishis since the last thousands of years. It is not a Truth proclaimed and declared by a single Prophet during a specific time in history.

As an Art of Living teacher I am amazed as to how the experience of mediation and the knowledge has such a profound effect on every sincere seeker who participates with an open mind. As of now I am working in Gujarat and Norway. Two completely different cultures with hardly any similarities and yet its so nice to see the same smiling faces and the same twinkle in the eye after an Yes!+ course. That same feeling of belongingness and a connectedness that cuts across all barriers of religion, nationality, intellectual orientation, family backgrounds, education etc etc.

For the first time I went to a place called shegao, a small village near Akola where my wife, Priyanka was teaching courses while I was in Norway. We had a fantastic session that once again re emphasised the fact that as humnans all that we want is to celebrate life as a one world family.

Two thousand five hundred people chanting together, singing together, meditating together and getting soaked in the light of the knowledge of the scriptures delivered by none other than our dear Swami Suryapada (chayanna)is one of the most beautiful experiences you can ever have. It was a satsang with a difference.

Swamiji has immense power in his rendering of the chants and such beautiful softness when he delivers the knowledge of the scriptures. I realized the power of the sanskrit language, the effect of the chants on the whole nervous system and now I am enthusiastic about learning a little bit of sanskrit language.

I remember the days when I used to go to dharavi everyday to conduct satsangs in the Navchetna Shibir. There was a dynamic group of youngsters who had just done the course and given up smoking, drinking and gutka. They used to tell me stories about much money and time they used to spend in all these addictions and the amazing transformation that happened after doing the course. The entire Art of Living family cleaned a huge dumping ground and hand picked 8 truck loads of garbage and converted into a beautiful garden and a gymnasium. Since then AOL Dharavi has come a long way.

It was a great feeling to attend a Concert that was a fund raising event for our own Dharavi school. There is a nice video on You tube. (search for SSRVM Dharavi film.) Also read a fantastic article by the chairman of ORF, M Sudheendra Kulkarni for the Indian Express. (http://www.indianexpress.com/news/clean-inside-clean-outside/613938/0)

Its a great feeling to be part of something that moves on the path of truth and Service completely undeterred by any amount of obstacles.

The day I came back from Norway my father suffered from a mild heart attack. I had a busy two weeks after that moving in and out of the hospital and I was also teaching a course with Bawa and Dinesh. He had to go through a angiography and a double angioplasty. He is fine now and back home since the last two days.

It was amazing to see the eagerness with which people wanted to help us out. At every juncture we met the right people, got the right kind of guidance and assistance. It was so smooth and so nice to see the kind of world Guruji is creating for all of us to live in. A world of trust, belongingness and sincerity.

"When you serve, nature will bend to serve you". The last few years of my life I have been experiencing this amazing words I heard from BAWA in one of the volunteers meets.

Yesterday We had a beautiful evening with Massimo from Italy or Max Ormeo as he likes to be called. We had a Fund Raising concert for Haiti and Chile with Massimo as the main singer. It was a great end to a very nice trip I had in Norway.

Massimo has a very good voice and is a mind blowing guitarist. He has a superb way of conducting a satsang. His light, humble and joyful presence is very easily likeable and he is a great performer with a good mix of professionalism, quality performance and a really warm and welcoming presence.

I have been badly missing the super energetic satsangs back home. So it was the last bhajan and though everybody else were only swaying in their chairs. I could not resist. You can see that here. Of course afetr a few minutes everybody were on their feet.

It was great experience to work with Chris or Kiran as Guruji calls him. FYI Kiran is BAWA's TTC teacher. He is the 2nd AOL teacher in the world and has traveled more than 35 countries spreading this knowledge. He has been around since the pre-kriya tape days. He was also present as one of the participants when Guruji recorded the Sudarshan kriya tape for the first time. He has many interesting stories about those days when he did his first part 1 course with Guruji in 1987. Though he is one of the senior most teachers, he is humble to the core and there is a lot to learn from his super efficient way of working. He is a perfectionist and extremely soft spoken. I tell you its a rare combination.

These 2 months passed very quickly and it was a nice visit with 6 courses and a small but beautiful concert. I heard that the refugee course project has started getting some press coverage.

A few hours and I fly back to India. Though I have had a superb time in Norway the very thought of India puts a smile on my face.

Our mind has the tendency to swing from one extreme to the other. The most difficult challenge we face in our life is to withdraw the mind from the extremes and stabilise it in the Golden middle path. Becoming centered and staying there without getting carried away by the extremes and the opposite values we encounter in our day to day life is one of the greatest challenge we face.

On one side we have people full of dynamism but are filled with anger and aggression. They speak through violence and most of the times have no idea what are they fighting for? On the other hand there are people who are so calm, relaxed and peaceful but are so completely passive and almost dead.

On one hand we have people over indulging in sex, pornography and other such stuff and on the other we have people who dont even let the shadow of a woman fall on them, lest it pollute the purity of their soul!

On one hand we have spiritual shoppers; people who are totally disconnected with the whole world and keep hallucinating about super natural experiences day and night and another category of innocent people who live only in their heart and are easily fooled by fake Gurus and Godmen. On the other hand we have people who are so completely cynical about anything spiritual that they live only in their heads all their life. They make this super generalisation that all Gurus are fake, ignoring the beautiful tradition of masters all parts of the world has had since time immemorial. Without whom life would be meaningless and without whom the world would not have survived the self destructive tendencies of ignorant minds. As someone in a TED talk said," they are like disembodied beings living in their heads. They see the rest of their body as a mode of transportation for their heads." They miss out on something really beautiful and worth experiencing.

On one hand we have people who believe in the first "hit and then talk" policy and on the other we have people who take non violence too literally. One of my students did not come to a picnic to a water park with us because she thought in playing with water she would inflict death on many innocent living organisms present in water.

On one hand we have religious fanatics creating terror on this planet and on the other we have people who are so anti religious and secular that they completely fail to recognize the seeds of terrorism, and the intentions of ill minded, strongly biased and hateful people. The importance of standing up at the right time and in the right way to anybody and anything that is attempting to take you for a ride.

This is a part of Letter (in bold) to the Editor of The Hindu, from a practicing Christian lady who was Professor in Stella Maris College, Chennai till recently; now settled at Baroda, regarding an Edit in The Hindu in favour of bringing back MF Hussain to India.

"Hussain is now a citizen of Qatar-this has generated enough of heat and less of light. Qatar you know better than me is not a country which respects democracy or freedom of expression. Hussain says he has complete freedom-I challenge him to paint a picture of Mohammed fully clad.

He has a painting of Saraswati copulating with a lion. One’s sexual orientation is each one’s business I suppose. But he captioned it as Saraswati. This is the problem. why use Saraswati and Sita for his perverted expressions? Use Fatima and watch the consequence. Let the media people come to his rescue then. Now that he is in a country that gives him complete freedom let him go ahead and paint Fatima copulating with a lion or any other animal of his choice. And then turn around and prove to India-the Freedom of expression he enjoys in Qatar.

It brings back to my mind an episode that happened to The Hindu some years ago.[1991]. You had a separate weekly page for children with cartoons, quizzes, and with poems and articles of school children. In one such weekly page The Hindu printed a venerable bearded man-fully robed with head dress, mouthing some passages of the Koran-trying to teach children .It was done not only in good faith but as a part of inculcating values to children from the Koran. All hell broke loose. Your office witnessed goons who rushed in-demanded an apology-held out threats. In Ambur,Vaniambadi and Vellore the papers stands were burned-the copies of The Hindu were consigned to the fire. A threat to raise the issue in Parliament through a Private Members Bill was held out. But The Hindu next day brought out a public apology in its front page. Where were you Ram? How secular and tolerant were the Muslims?

May I fervently wish that the media-especially The Hindu does not discriminate goons-let it not substitute tolerance for intolerance when it comes to Rahim and Antony and another index for Ram."

Hussain hates Hitler and has said in an interview 8 years ago that he depicted Hitler naked so as to humiliate him as he deserves it ! HE also showed mahatma Gandhi without a head ( I dont know what that means?)So this is what he himself says he means when he paints someone nude and then he goes on to paint Indian Goddesses not just nude but having animal sex! He paints mother India nude and has another painting which says," Rape of India"! after the Mumbai terror attacks.

I am personally not bothered about what he paints But more than trying to debate about what he has done by those paintings is right or wrong the question is whether was it a responsible thing to do?

Was it so difficult for Mr M F Hussain to anticipate that it would create a controversy after an exhibition of such pictures? if No? then he is plain stupid and if YES then thats being really insensitive and irresponsible. All Indian temples have sculptures of nude women outside the temple and many more places like Khajuraho have sexually explicit carvings but none of them are named as sita or Durga.. and that too why would anyone want to show Godesses having animal sex?? and also put a name tag on their picture,"DURGA". Its obvious that it will hurt people. Even in Khajuraho temple all the sculptures of Durga, vishnu and other deities are fully clothed.

A Hindu takes pride in calling himself secular. I think that is because the whole essence of our tradition and the spiritual heritage is to realise the oneness of the whole universe..is to break through limited identifications.

But we need to realise that we need to transcend identity and not merely deny it. Mere denial is a sign of cowardice. We need to first accept and then go beyond. We need to learn from the past.

By the way I think people like M F Hussain are better in Qatar. Since I am sure in Qatar he will surely not dare to do anything even if he has the slightest doubt that it will hurt someones sentiments.

We are not short of legends, we have Lata Mangeshkar, Bhimsen joshi, Sachin tendulkar and many more who use their freedom of expression in a much more sensible and responsible manner.

Shobha De thinks that its India's loss and Qatar's good luck. I have no idea whats wrong with her. It seems she does not know that he himself said that all that he dreams is of coming back to INDIA. If he is promised security he says he would catch the first flight back HOME since he loves this great country. But may be its too late.

Search Emily Bear on youtube. Watch at least 3 of her videos( especially "Emily bear compositions part2","Emily on the Ellen show" and "Emily on the Sunday night show") and then continue reading..and then watch all her videos.Do not miss a single one.

Love at first Sight?! I am completely in love with her.

She is the most adorable, the sweetest, the cutest, the most talented, exceptionally brilliant, and a precious little gift to our planet. An angel dropped from Heaven just to add beauty, peace and love on this planet. When you see someone like her, faith in the Divine strengthens. It becomes more obvious that HE knows what the world needs today. A guy commented on one of her videos that if you dont instantly fall in love with her you should immediately get your heart checked.

With her sheer Innocence, joy and unbelievable talent this beautiful little sweet girl has completely captivated my heart and my mind since I heard her for the first time; that was just two days back.

Not just with her talent but also with her joyful and angelic presence I have been totally overwhelmed as I watched all her videos on youtube three to four times.

All her compositions are exquisite. Unimaginable to think that a six year old can make such beautiful music. Her music has such purity and such beauty that it stays with you..it lingers on and on and its impossible to not fall in love with this precious little, adorable child...Gods gift to this world.

Tomorrows wishes, Northern lights, Ellen song, Journey to my heart and the Love in us are all songs composed by this angel called Emily Bear.I heave heard them so many times already.

She is 8 years old now and has composed 350 songs, 2 albums and has a huge fan following all over the world. She is not one of the child prodigies who are made to practice like machines by over ambitious parents. She is like a breath of fresh air..She does not play the Piano, she plays with the piano.

I would not like to compare her with any other prodigy because I know there are many who can play complex, high speed stuff on various instruments but what makes Emily special is her compositions and the way she conducts them..with such joy and flashes that sweet smile in the end.

We keep getting lot of E mail forwards. Some really good, some ok and some an utter waste of time. I would like to share with you one of the best I received just a few days ago. Its a Speech delivered By Mr Subroto Baghchi, CEO Mind Tree to the class of 2006 at IIM Bangalore defining success.

Here are a few parts of the speech.

My mother used to take ash from the chullah and mix it with the earth and plant seedlings. This time when they bloomed, the neighbours asked her why she was taking so much pain to beautify a Government house? My mother replied it did not matter to her that she would not see the flowers in full bloom.She said," I have to create a bloom in a desert and whenever I am given a new place, I must leave it more beautiful than what I had inherited".

That was the first lesson in success," It is not about what you create for yourself, it is about what you leave behind that defines success".

Imagination is everything. If we can imagine a future, we can create it. If we can create it, others can live in it. This is the essence of success.

The safdurjung Hospital is a cockroach infected dirty place. The over-worked under resourced sisters are victims of de-humanized life at its worst. One morning attending to my father i realized that the blood bottle was empty. Fearing that air would get into his blood I summoned the sister to do the needful. she very rudely asked me to do it myself. In that horrible theater of death I was in pain, frustration and anger. Finally when she relented and came my father opened his eyes and murmured to her," why have you not gone home yet?" here was a man on his deathbed more concerned about the overworked nurse. I was stunned at his stoic self.

I learnt that there is no limit of how concerned you can be for another human being. Success is your ability to rise above your discomfort whatever be your current state.

Two years at the age of 82 my mother had a paralytic stroke. I flew down from US and spent two weeks with her. She was neither getting better nor moving on. I had to leave back to work. while leaving her behind I kissed her face. Int he paralytic state and garbled voice she said," why are you kissing me? Go kiss the world!"

At the confluence of life and death a woman whose life was crowned by adversity was asking her son to go and kiss the world!.

Success is about giving back to life more than you can take. It is about creating extraordinary success with ordinary lives!!

I am sure nobody can make nothing out of this title. But you know? everything is connected. Its something really weird which can make you wonder only if you dont make an attempt to understand. Its a interesting story I heard and felt honoured to be a part of it. It comes in the category of "Cant but share". So here it is.

Mr Hugo, the chief of a refugee camp in Hol, Norway was sleeping. As he was sleeping he saw a dream. In the dream he saw a photo of man wearing white clothes, with a beard and long hair and had absolutely no idea who He was. But then there was a old typewriter just in front of the photo which automatically started typing out the words" Sri Sri Ravi Shankar".

Just after the typewriter had done its job, Mr Hugo got up and immediately googled the name and soon was reading through the AOL website. That same evening he attended an Intro talk with his wife and did the Part1 course and three weeks later the part 2 course. As he was totally convinced about the benefits of the techniques he organised a course for all the 40 refugees in his camp!

Last week we conducted the course and it was a great experience for all of us. We had a fantastic team. We had khonia ( she is from Iran living in norway), Amjad (From pakistan living in Denmark), Motten and Bryn from Denmark and Marius from Norway. We had a tough time and it was really challenging to handle them. Since they all came from a very difficult background and with a traumatic past.

It was not easy to keep a smile and to be gentle all the time but as every day passed we could see how beautifully the unseen energy was at work. Their faces started glowing. On of the guys after sudarshan kriya said, "its like being born again. thank you so much". another guy said, " I cant describe this experience in words".

The smiles and number of thank yous kept on increasing and finally they started saying, "we will miss you". On the last day it was just joy, gratefulness and love.

We learnt a lot. We learnt to be patient. I have no idea in the last one week how many times I said the words,"accept people as they are" to myself. I have realised that the job of the teacher is "to let Him do His job" and this needs to be remembered again and again and again every time the small mind interferes with the unseen.

How can you say something like this? This one thought can give us sleepless nights. How many times in our life has this thought taken away our peace of mind? how many times someone said something and all of a sudden our heads started boiling and we started behaving like half lunatics on a full moon night.

A few negative words from someone and many a times in this beautiful world it has triggerred the worst fights and has provoked people into commiting the most gruesome acts of violence.

Q: What should we do when people talk negatively?

Guruji : From your side give license to everybody to talk about anything, about anybody, anywhere at any time.

Wow! Thats it. A sure shot path to freedom. Our problem is, we very stubbornly hold on to the license and refuse to give it to just somebody to talk about something, about somebody, somewhere at sometime.

We have our own reasons to get upset about some specific people in our life talking about something in particular and that too to somebody in particular.

Giving away this license to the whole world, to every single person we know and we dont know, would give us the greatest Peace we all are looking for.

" Oh great! its only minus 4, its warm today!!" imagine me saying this. It takes just two days of minus 15 for an Indian to say that. With all that sparkling white snow all over the place it relly looks very very pretty. But minus 15 is something that gets even too much for the Norwegians here.

Sunshine on the sparkling white snow! took this pic from the window of my room in Anjulas house.

He is Willhelm the tallest guy I ever taught..

The rest of the yesplusites...Magnus, Paul and michel

Snowfall!! looks very nice and you can really enjoy once you get used to the cold.

First it was a 5 hour train journey from Baroda to Mumbai and then a 8 hour flight till Frankfurt and then a 8 hour halt in Frankfurt and then again a 2 hour flight to Oslo. I am a full time traveling teacher and such long journeys cannot be avoided. But now there is nothing to worry since I have found the greatest companion. MR P G WODEHOUSE.

"Aunts arent Gentlemen", 'Cocktail Party" and "Uncle Fred in Springtime". I have carried 3 P G wodehouses with me and now after this journey I have decided that in this lifetime I will never ever travel without him. For those of you who dont know P G Wodehouse, he is the best comic writer ever. He was also known as the greatest musician of the English Language. Apart from being the cleverest plotter and side-splittingly funny His characterization and description of every situation to its minutest detail just speaks volumes about an exceptional ability of observation of the human mind and behaviour he must have had.

The originality of his sense of Humour is what sets him apart in a class of his own. Whenever you are all alone but you have one of those books in your hand you are very close to happiness.

He has written more than 90 books. Each book can easily be read atleast thrice. So all my travel for this lifetime has been taken care of.

In one of his books Uncle fred with a catapult and a Brazil nut knocks off the hat of a barrister named Sir Raymond bastable, a very respectable but arrogant man. Here is a typical P G Wodehouse description of this character. The sentences are always long and a bit heavy but once you get used to it you can very easily get addicted to it.

" There may have been men in London who thought more highly of Sir Raymond bastable than did Sir Raymond bastable, but they would have been hard to find, and the sense of being someone set apart and superior to the rest of the world inevitably breeds arrogance. Sir Raymonds attitude towards his sister, phoebe, who kept house for him and was reduced by him to a blob of tearful jelly almost daily- was always that of an irritable tribal God who intends to stand no nonsense from his worshipers and is prepared, should the smoked offering fall short of the highest standard, to say it with Thunderbolts. To have his hat knocked off with a brazil nut would, in Uncle Freds opinion, make him a better, deeper, more lovable man."

For people who are not so used to reading, reading P G Wodehouse would be like listening to classical music. It takes time to discover a taste for it but once you start liking you cant live without it.

"Om shanti shanti shanti", Guruji in His sweet voice chanted and few minutes later He asked us to open our eyes.

It was amazing and for me I could really relax effortlessly only after the chant. you know why? because only when the meditation was supposed to end I naturally gave up all efforts to meditate. That is when "meditation" happened.

The biggest obstacle in meditation is the thought "I want to meditate".

Guruji explains this secret of meditation with the most apt example. He says meditating is like going for a massage. Where you do nothing. Just let the person do his/her job. In the same way when you meditate just say," I am just going to sit with my eyes closed and Guruji you meditate for me".

Giving full permission to the mind to wander is the secret of getting it back in the present moment.

In every context in life this statement holds true. I was supposed to work in Gujarat and set up a few things there. Due to "unavoidable circumstances" I had to cut short my Gujarat trip by a few days and now I am here in the bangalore ashram deciding not to sleep tonight since I have to catch a flight after a few hours to frankfurt via London and then after a brief halt at the German ashram I will be off to my native place; Norway!.

My first course in Norway would be in Baroda!! really confusing is nt it? With A Guru in your life and Bawa as your mentor/trainer/ guide/ Boss such things happen. I will be teaching through Skype. It would be my first course on skype. As every day passes I keep getting amazed at the speed at which everything is changing.

Right now I am just getting prepared to face minus 20 for the first time in life and at the same time quite excited about visiting the German ashram, also for the first time.

JGDRashmin

PS: its 2:46 am right now. I am glad that I have not broken my posting every Tuesday commitment.

Guruji recently said somthing incredibly profound. I have been pondering over His words for the last few days and I have noticed that every time I think about it, it really helps me to relax and drop all feverishness from my mind.

" That which you cannot avoid or confront is Truth, That which cannot be hidden or fully expressed is Love, That which cannot be renounced or possessed is beauty".

Conviction in this statement brings such dispassion. Whatever the Truth is, it will some day reveal itself. If we observe carefully every moment our mind is in some or the other way either avoiding or confronting the Truth. But sonner or later Every individual consciousness some day will be surrounded by reality how much ever it tries to avoid or confront. It has its own time, it own path of evolution. All that you need to do is smile and wait and watch.

Desperately futile attempts of convincing someone about Love or about something beautiful always has lead to intense frustration. But when we have this inner conviction in Guruji's wisdom it immediately helps to relax and move into that state of maturity where you can smile and continue smiling.

We are all set to explode. I am Just leaving tomorrow for Gujarat. Since the last 12 years I have had only one passion and that is to organise Art of Living courses. Witnessing the transformation from the first day to the last day just leaves you wondering about the infinite power of the invisible force.

Dedicating ones life to just one, single cause gives tremendous energy and meaning to life. Every time seems like the first time and every day seems so new and fresh. The past looks like a dream and personal worries of the future are non existent. This is what passion for seva can do to ones life.

Swami Vivekananda ones said that we need Shivas demons! to render the skies with chants of Hara hara shiva shambho. Only then will be a lasting transformation in this world.

Being sweet sweet and goody goody is not going to help. I like this word,"shivas Demomns!" I feel like I am one of them.

As this blog moves into its 3rd year I thought I would like to officially announce that hence forth I will be posting minimum one post every week. So the blog will definitely have a new post every Tuesday and also MAY have a new post on Fridays.

Does that sound nice?

Thank you all for reading, commenting and appreciating my blog.

I am sure this new year will bring a lot more exciting stories, thrilling experiences and beautiful knowledge that will keep all the readers "entertained".